The primary difference is based on the fact that Box.net was designed with a heavy emphasis on pure cloud based file sharing and not so much as a file server. Until recently, Box.net did not provide offline sync capability (like Dropbox or Egnyte Personal Local Cloud). Box.net has focused on adding richer metadata around files and is in the process of positioning themselves as a Sharepoint alternative. Egnyte, from day one, was built to be a cloud based alternative for the physical file server with the SME as the target market, and not the consumer. We replace the physical file server, period. We do not have a freemium model, though we do have a 15 day free trial. Currently we have two data centers where we have our own storage which has grown closer to 2 petabytes.

Apart from browser access, Egnyte allows access to the cloud using a mapped drive letter (like a Z:) on your computer. This is great for direct, live editing of files in the cloud. For really large data sets, Egnyte can also support uploads using an FTP protocol. Egnyte also provides a desktop sync tool, called a Personal Local Cloud, like Dropbox. There are no file size limits in Egnyte unlike Box.net. In summary, Egnyte provides the widest range of upload protocols compared to the vendors in this space.

Egnyte (www.egnyte.com) is beginning to take leadership in the emerging hybrid cloud arena. This goes beyond just simple single user sync capability. Many of our larger customers really like the idea of working from a local file share in their office. Egnyte allows an office of, say 50-100 users to access files quickly from a local device and have it synchronized to the cloud. Our hybrid cloud technology can be deployed on commercial NAS devices (e.g. Netgear) or as a VMware virtual appliance on any server, storage investment (Linux, Windows, SAN etc.). Please see http://www.egnyte.com/online-storage/local-cloud-features.html for more details. This is a very unique product that only Egnyte offers. Neither Box.net nor anyone else in the market offers a product like this. This product has been key to our success in the mid-market, where cloud storage adoption is rising.